Walk into Marissa Alperin’s light-filled, Brooklyn Heights shop on any given afternoon, and you’ll find her working on something—an intricate weaving, one of her signature rose gold urchin rings, a custom bracelet incorporating old gems from a necklace one of her customer’s inherited from her mother. Alperin, who was born and raised in the neighborhood and lives with her husband and three children on the same block as her childhood home, launched her eponymous line and custom business in 2003, after working as a translator for National Geographic. A graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology, Alperin’s designs are inspired by her extensive travels, especially childhood summers spent with her maternal grandmother in La Coruna, a small coastal town in Spain. Subtle color combinations thrum throughout her collection (“I’m not a fan of all-black dressing,” admits Alperin) and every Monday for the last sixteen years, she sources the most unique precious and semi-precious gems from Manhattan’s Diamond District, including one-of-a-kind geometric slices.. Alperin is also one of the few designers in New York who reimagines outdated keepsakes and creates new, strikingly modern pieces with soul.